(click on the picture below to see a slide show!) By the way, the shot below of Cole was taken at the dinner table. He didn’t eat a single bite of food before passing out.
I have a bit of writers block this evening and I have a suspicion that it may have something to do with the exhaustion that I’m feeling now that the holidays are in their home stretch. So I’m going to keep this post short and sweet. We are well, Christmas was great, and now I’m going to crack open a beer and play a little Gears of War since the kids are in bed

(click on the picture below to see a slide show!)

Erin and I awoke to the kids making Christmas Eve “breakfast”. They were proud to serve us marshmallow toast with our coffee. During the afternoon, Erin let the boys ice cookies for Santa, so I included a few of those shots in the slideshow. This evening, we had grandma over and ate lots of appetizers and sampled some cocktails. The boys each picked out a gift to open. Ian chose the Pirate logo set that Erin and I found for him. Nathan opened up a chemistry set (don’t worry, it is made for his age and Cole opened up a pair of alligator boots.

It’s 10:00 PM, all the presents are wrapped, the kids are actually in bed and I even found time for a blog post! Hope this is a preview of what 2007 will bring
Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays and I’ll post more updates soon.

Well I’m sure that by now you have all heard about the terrible wind storm that hit last Thursday. I’ll spare you all of the details other than to say that we are grateful that we were safe and that our property wasn’t damaged. We lost power for three days, but we made the best of it.

Here’s a pic that I took the day after the storm while trying to drive to Microsoft; in addition to losing power, we had no phone service (landline or mobile).

And here are some shots of the boys camping out and of course no disaster would be complete without Ian hamming it up. He decided to bundle up in his mom’s hat and scarf.

Almost two weeks ago, Grandma came over and we trimmed the tree. Growing up, my mom and dad had a tradition where each year they would buy or make an ornament for each of us kids that represented something that happened that year. Erin and I have carried on that tradition and I have to say that it makes trimming the tree so much more fun as all kinds of memories come flooding back.

Erin made the ornament below when we were in North Carolina in 2000. The picture is of Nathan holding a baby doll in his lap. Erin had me hang this ornament and used it to creatively tell me that she was pregnant with Ian. How cool is that? Actually, it made up for the way that she broke the news that she was pregnant with Nathan. She said that she had good news and bad news. The bad news was that she had just gotten a speeding ticket and the good news was that she was pregnant! I have never let her live that down
Here are a few of other shots I took of the boys and the final product

Thanks to my mom, we started a new Christmas tradition in our household. The other night, she brought a special book + Elf doll called Elf on a Shelf for our kids. The idea is that the kids name their elf and learn that the elf watches them all day long. Before they go to bed the kids get to place the elf somewhere in the house. When they are sleeping, the elf makes his way back to the North Pole to inform Santa on the children’s behavior. The next morning, the kids will find that the elf has returned and is now in a different spot!

On the surface this sounds like a great thing! The kids will obviously be reminded each time they see the elf that they must behave or Santa will find out. Well, yesterday I woke up with a back ache because Ian had crawled into bed with us. Erin told me that Ian had woke her up at 2AM saying that he was scared that the Elf would creep into his room and that he didn’t want the scary elf to watch him while he slept. So Erin had to promise to write to Santa and have Santa tell the Elf not to spy on Ian while he slept. Even after this, Ian was too spooked to sleep in his own bed. Fast forward to 5:30 AM and Nathan comes into the bedroom and wakes Erin up because he wants to go down stairs and find out if the Elf made it back from the North Pole yet. Thankfully, I’m a heavy sleeper, but Erin was basically up much of the night compliments of Grandma
Another priceless moment that we’ll have to remember. I can’t wait to pull this story out when Ian is all grown up

I recently hired Dan Bos from True Tone Productions to compose music for my Photography website and I’m blown away by the results!! He nailed it. I think the song “Pendulum” captures the sound and elicits the emotions that I was looking for. Check out my site to listen to it and let me know what you think!

What a week! The snow is now gone and I’ll soon be able to say same for the stress that was caused. Erin and I, plus a couple of close friends are spending the day shopping in Seattle (and no, that’s not the part that I’m excited about…keep reading). Then we’re going to check in to the W Hotel and enjoy a kid free evening of bar hopping and restaurant tastings. I can’t remember the last time Erin and I were able to break away for more than a few hours. I honestly can’t think of a better way to kick off the holiday season than to get the shopping done early while spending time with Erin, friends, a nice hotel, great food and cocktails. Sorry, didn’t mean to make you jealous. Thanks Mom, for making this possible. Hope the kids don’t stress you out too much! Just don’t call if they do, we’ll be back tomorrow